Love Lies and Friendship the Pains of Growing Up
by xdevilishxbrittx
Summary: Marauders 7th year. Lily hates how James is such a playboy, but what will happen when she gives him a taste of his own medicine? JL, SOC, ROC
1. I

            This is my version of the Marauders seventh year at Hogwarts. It's mostly focused on Lily and James, but there's a lot of stuff about the others too. There's lots of love, fighting, friendship, heartbreak, all that crap. This is my first ever fanfic so please review and tell me if you like it. You can also tell me if I'm a horrible writer and need to be shot if that's how you feel. 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that looks familiar. Although I wish I did, because then I would be the billionaire instead of J.K Rowling (if only L)

Lily Evans lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Every now and then she glanced at the window, but without much expectation. She sighed and closed her eyes; after seven weeks of this she was starting to think her Hogwarts letter would never come. Last summer had been like this too, pacing around her room eagerly anticipating the arrival of her O.W.L results, but those had come only two weeks after she arrived home.

Suddenly, she heard a rustle of wings and her eyes popped open. She jumped up and watched a brown owl fly in through her window. Her heart was pounding painfully in her chest as she untied the letter from its leg, but she reminded herself to calm down, it was probably just going to end up being a letter from one of her friends. She finally managed to untie the letter and felt her heart jump up into her throat when she turned it over and saw the Hogwarts crest. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, gathering her courage, and slowly ripped it open. She opened her eyes and read the letter with trembling hands.

_Dear Ms. Evans,_

_    Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock._

_      Also, I am pleased to inform you that you have been awarded the position of Head Girl. You are to report to the Prefects' carriage precisely five minutes after the train pulls out of_ _King's Cross station, and you are to explain the rules and conditions to the new Prefects. After dinner, you are to report to the Headmasters office for a short meeting. Congratulations, and I hope you have a pleasant year._

_Your new Head Girl badge along with a list of books for next year is enclosed._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Professor M. McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

"YES!" she screamed, punching the air triumphantly, and running down the stairs to the kitchen. "MUM! DAD! I DID IT! I'M HEAD GIRL!"

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            The next week felt like the longest one Lily had ever had to endure. She loved her parents a lot, but she was much happier at Hogwarts and she couldn't wait to go back. At Hogwarts she was with her own kind, and she didn't have to endure endless taunting from her bitchy sister Petunia about her being an abnormal freak.

            Finally, September 1st arrived. Lily woke up around 5 a.m., and was too excited to fall back asleep. She got dressed, showered, straightened her hair, brushed her teeth, ate breakfast, finished packing, applied her makeup, and finally it was time to leave.

            She arrived at the station around 10:45, hoping to see her friends before she headed down to the Prefects' carriage. She hugged and kissed each of her parents, shook hands with her sister Petunia, and walked through the wall, eagerly anticipating her return to the world in which she really belonged.

            As Lily dragged her trunk over to the scarlet train, she heard her someone scream her name and she spun around.

            Running towards her, were two of her best friends, Dylan and Ashley Carter. Dylan and Ashley were identical down to the last detail, (tall and thin with curvy bodies that all the girls envied, bright, clear blue eyes, perfectly straight, white teeth), except for their hair. Dylan had long, straight chestnut brown hair with natural highlights of blonde and red. Ashley's was shorter, right above her shoulders, angled in the front, and strawberry blonde. They had each dyed and restyled their hair in fifth year, tired of everybody continuously confusing them.

            Lily squealed and hugged the twins. When they broke apart, Dylan noticed the bright silver Head Girl badge and screamed again.

            "Oh my god!" she moaned enviously, pointing at the badge. "You got Head Girl!"

            "I know!" Lily said excitedly, "Mum and Dad were so proud they gave me 50 extra galleons, think about how much clothes we can buy the next time we go to Hogsmeade!"

            The girls talked and laughed for a few minutes as they made their to an empty compartment in the middle of the train, but stopped abruptly when the other two members of their group, Toni Walker and Sammi Spinnet walked in. Toni was sobbing on Sammi's shoulder, and Sammi was trying to comfort her.

            "Toni what happened?" Ashley asked anxiously, jumping up and running over to them, followed by Lily and Dylan.

            "Sirius dumped me," she cried, sobbing even harder.

            "Black? But you told us you said no when he asked you out!" Lily said, confused.

            "She's been dating him all summer. She didn't tell any of us because we kept telling her it was a bad idea," Sammi said, rolling her eyes. "Obviously we were right."

            "You didn't sleep with him did you?" Dylan asked anxiously.

            "Would Sirius have dumped her before he got what he wanted?" Sammi asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

            "I thought he had changed! He told me he loved me…I thought he really meant it!" Toni moaned desperately. 

            "That's what EVERY girl him and Potter have done this to thought. Jesus Christ Toni, how could you be so stupid?" Lily asked irritably. She looked at her watch and realized she was supposed to be in the Prefects carriage in a few minutes. She said goodbye to her friends and walked to the front of the train, making a mental note to destroy Sirius Black when she saw him.

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Ok that's it. The next chapter will be up soon. Please review! - Britt


	2. II

            Thanks for the Reviews!

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Lily marched through compartment after compartment, but to her disappointment didn't find Sirius. She sighed and figured she would deal with him after the meeting, and headed down to the Prefect carriage. She pushed open the door and saw that she was the first person there, so she sat down and waited for everybody else to arrive. A few seconds later, the door slipped open, and in came the one person she despised most in the world, James Potter. But this was a different James Potter; he had grown over the summer and now stood at around 6'1. He was tan and even more muscular than usual. He almost looked…handsome. Lily gaped for a few minutes then snapped out of it.

            "What the hell do you want Potter? Come to ask me out again? My answer still is and always will be NO."

            "Ah," James said grinning. "You're Head Girl? This year is going to be a lot more fun that I thought."

            Lily's eyes widened in shock as she spotted the gleaming Head Boy badge pinned to his robes. "WHAT?" she yelped, "WHY YOU? WHY NOT REMUS? YOU'RE THE BIGGEST TROUBLEMAKER IN THE SCHOOL! IS DUMBLEDORE MAD?"

            James just laughed and sat down next to her.

            Lily stood up and stomped her foot in frustration. The Head Boy and Girl had to spend countless hours alone together, planning things, patrolling corridors, helping out the teachers. James was the most egotistical arrogant bigheaded playboy she had ever met, and that was all just because he was a good quidditch player. Now that he was good-looking too, he was bound to be 100x worse (if that was even possible). "Now you listen to me Potter!" she yelled, glaring down at him. "Every second we spend together this year, is going to be nothing but work. We will NEVER be anything more than friends…we'll never even be friends. If you ask me out, try to kiss me, or do anything at all like that even once, you WILL regret it."

            James laughed again, and stood up too. "Oh, I'm not going to try any of that this year. I'm going to use a different approach. By the end of this year, _you're_ going to ask _me_ out."

            Now it was Lily's turn to laugh. "I don't know what you were smoking before you stepped onto this train, but it must have been strong. You've got less of a chance of me asking you out than you do of seeing Malfoy marry a muggle."

            Just then the Prefects started entering. Lily waited until they were all there, and quickly explained the rules. James just sat there and nodded. As soon as she was finished she grabbed James by the hand and pulled him up. "Take me to your friends," she hissed, pushing him out of the compartment. "I need to have a little word with Black."

            "Er, is this about Toni?' he asked tentatively, not moving.

            "Yes!" Lily said, pushing him harder. When he still didn't move, she pulled out her wand. "Now take me to him or I swear I'll hex you!"

            James eyed the wand apprehensively, and then stepped out of the compartment. They headed down to the end of the train, where they found the other three Marauders playing exploding snap.

            "SIRIUS BLACK I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU," Lily shouted, the second she stepped into the compartment.

Sirius looked up and rolled his eyes at the site of Lily standing over him in a towering rage. "Hey Evans," he said unconcernedly, knowing what was coming but not caring.

"Don't you hey Evans me! You broke my best friend's heart! When the fuck are you going to grow up? You took away something she can never get back and then you just treat her like shit and leave her?"

"Look," Sirius said looking bored, "nobody _made_ her sleep with me. She chose to."

"YOU MAKE ME SICK!" Lily screamed, slapping him across the face. She then noticed the other three Marauders cracking up at the site of her screaming herself hoarse. "AND SHUT UP YOU THREE!"

            Sirius put his hand up to his face and grinned, "You know Evans, you're really sexy when you're angry," he said seductively.

            James immediately stopped laughing and glared at Sirius as Lily stomped out of the compartment to go and find her friends.

            "Padfoot, if you hit on her one more time…" he said warningly.

            "Oh calm down, Prongs, I was only joking." Sirius said laughing, "She may be hot but she's definitely the most annoying person I've ever met in my entire life."

            "She's got a horrible temper," Peter agreed, nodding his head.

            "Well you _did _sleep with her best friend and then dump her," Remus said fairly.

            "So?" Sirius said, unfazed. "It's Toni's fault. She was actually stupid enough to believe me.

            Remus rolled his eyes. "You're such a prick,"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -

Lily walked into the compartment and threw herself down on a seat, fuming.

"POTTER'S HEADBODY!" she roared when Dylan shot her a questioning look.

All the girls in the compartment burst out laughing, even Toni, which infuriated Lily even more.

"It's not funny!" she whined. "Do you not understand how much time I'm going to have to spend with him this year? It's going to be torture!"

"Aw bad luck Lil, we're sorry," Ashley said trying to hold back her laughter.

The girls spent the rest of the train talking about their summer and trying to comfort Toni and Lily. By the time the train pulled into Hogsmeade, Lily had calmed down a bit, and her excitement at finally being back at Hogwarts had overcome her rage.

As the five girls stepped off of the train and set off to find an empty carriage, Lily spotted James surrounded by a group of giggling girls. She rolled her eyes and kept walking, but stopped when Sammi gasped.

            "Holy shit is that James?" she said incredulously, "He looks amazing!"

The other girls spotted him and nodded their heads in agreement.

"Am I the _only_ one who sees him for what he is?" Lily said angrily. "An arrogant big-headed playboy?"

"We see that too," Dylan said. "Only we see him as a _gorgeous_ arrogant big-headed playboy."

Lily glared at her and then stalked away to the nearest carriage.

"Dylan stop being such a bitch," Ashley said, shaking her head, "you know that just mentioning his name makes her mad enough to kill,"

"Yeah, I know," Dylan said shrugging, "but she's really funny when she's angry."

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Thanks again for the reviews. I know these chapters are short, but I'll start making them longer. Please review and tell me what you think!


	3. III

Thanks for the reviews! I'm sorry it's taking so long to update, but my internet is really messed up and I've been having some problems. Please review!

It was around 8:30 that night and Lily was sitting in Dumbledore's office drumming her fingers on the side of her chair. She had been sitting there next to James for the past half hour, listening to Dumbledore explain the rules and responsibilities of being the Head Girl and Boy.

"And lastly, it is your job to plan the Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, and Graduation Balls for the Seventh Years. You are to work on them during your weekly meetings. I am confident that you will prove to me that I made the right choice in selecting you two as our Head students. Please do not let me down. You may go."

Lily and James nodded, and got up. They said goodbye to Dumbledore, and made their way down the spiraling staircase. Lily began to walk quickly, desperate to get away from James, but he caught up and began to walk next to her.

"So this year should be fun, eh? All those meetings, patrolling the corridors at night, not to mention the fact that we're probably going to get partnered up for every project this year, all the Head Boys and Girls do."

"Ugh, Potter, _please _don't remind me." Lily said, disgusted.

"Come on Lily, we're going to be spending the entire year together, can't we just be friends?" James said desperately.

"No," Lily said shortly.

"Well why not?"

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Do you _really _want to know?"

"YES!"

"Well," Lily said, in mock thought. "It just might be because you're a self-centered, pompous brat. You're so arrogant, and in love with yourself. You walk around with that stupid snitch, messing up your hair because you think it looks cool-"

"So the reason you detest me is because I'm a bit conceited?" James said, unfazed. They reached the portrait hole and stepped inside. "I'll make sure to work on that then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some place to be," he said, as a sixth year girl walked up to him, blushing furiously. James led her by the hand out of the portrait hole, and Lily walked over to her friends who were sitting by the fire, enjoying their last work-free night. It was NEWT year, and they were bound to be getting more work than ever.

"I hate him," she said through clenched teeth, sitting down on the couch next to Toni.

"WE KNOW" the other four girls chorused, rolling their eyes.

Just then, Lily spotted Sammi's younger sister Blake heading towards the portrait hole, hand in hand with Sirius.

"Um, Sammi…" she said, nodding toward them.

Sammi followed her gaze and then jumped up. "SIRIUS BLACK, GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY SISTER!"

The whole common room fell silent, and watched as Sammi ran over to them, and tried to pull Blake away.

"Sammi get off me!" Blake hissed, "Mind your own business."

"No! I'm not letting him turn you into a hoe and then drop you." Sammi said stubbornly still pulling on Blake's arm, trying to drag her away."

"I'm sorry you're jealous that I'm going on a date with the hottest guy at Hogwarts," Blake hissed venomously, "but give it up. It's not like I'm going to sleep with him on the first date, I'm not you,"

"Spinnet, unlike you we have somewhere to be," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. They turned around and exited through the portrait hole, and Sammi stalked back over to her friends, fuming.

"Sammi," Dylan said frowning, "why do you take that shit from her? She's horrible to you, her and her little friends spend their lives trying to destroy the five of us, yet you still continue to try to help her."

"Because she's my sister," Sammi snapped.

"Sammi blood means absolutely _nothing._" Lily said darkly, "Look at what I've got for a sister."

"Yes but you've got a family, parents who love you. Me and Blake, we're orphans, all we've got is each other. It's been that way for the past 12 years."

"That's not true," Ashley said sternly, "you have us."

"You just don't understand," Sammi said shaking her head. She spotted Remus sitting alone, reading a book on a couch in the corner and walked over to him.

"Your friends are the biggest jackasses I have ever met in my entire life," she said fervently, sitting down next to him.

"Oh, but that sister of yours is just a little angel." Remus said, grinning.

"Yes, but the difference is I'm stuck with her no matter how bad she gets. You _choose _to be friends with James and Sirius. Why, I'll never know…"

"They're not as bad as they seem, just a little immature; they'll grow up eventually. How's Toni?"

Sammi rolled her eyes. "She's a wreck. What she needs is a decent guy to boost up her self-confidence, but I'm starting to think there aren't any decent guys here."

"There are _some_," Remus said indignantly.

Sammi's eyes lit up as she was struck by a sudden thought. "Remus! You're a guy! A good-looking, sweet, caring one! You would be perfect with Toni! There's a Hogsmeade trip next weekend; ask her to go! Please?"

"Er, I don't think so," Remus said tentatively.

"Well why not?" Sammi said, annoyed. "I don't get what's so bad about her, she's pretty, she's funny, she's sweet-"

"No, no it's not that, it's just…I kind of like somebody else," Remus said, turning bright red.

"Really?" Sammi said keenly, "who?"

"Er, I'm not really sure I should say right now," Remus said, looking at the floor. "I'm tired, I think I'm going to go to bed, goodnight." He got up and began to walk towards the stairs.

"Remus! You're my best friend, practically my brother, you know you can tell me!"

"Yeah, great, your brother, that's exactly what I want to be," Remus muttered to himself, as he continued walking up to his dorm.

Please review!


	4. IV

        Thanks for the reviews. And to LimeJuiceTub, Lily yells a lot now because she despises James and he infuriates her. That's what she was like in Snape's memory in OOTP, so that's how I'm making her. She won't be like that for long though.

A few nights later, Lily, Dylan, Ashley, Toni and Sammi were sitting in the Common Room doing a particularly hard Transfiguration essay. They looked up as Remus walked over and sat next to Sammi.

"Mind if I sit with you guys?" he said, glancing nervously over at the back of the room. "I'd rather not be with the other Marauders right now."

"Sure," Sammi said smiling, "but why?"

Remus opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a shriek that filled the common room.

"YOU'RE BREAKING UP WITH ME?"

'That's why."

The girls spun around to look at the back of common room, where they saw the girl James had gone on a date with their first night back standing over him screaming herself hoarse, tears pouring down her face.

"I-I thought you were different…you told me you loved me…you were just doing it to get me into bed?" she cried disbelievingly.

"Where have we heard that one before?" Dylan whispered sardonically, rolling her eyes at Toni.

"No, it's not that. I _did _have feelings for you, I just sort of …changed my mind," James said, nonchalantly.

Most of the older kids turned away uninterested, because they were so used to seeing Sirius and James do this to girls. The first years, however, were gaping at the scene before them, not understanding how James could be so mean.

The girl ran over to her friends, sobbing, and James pulled his books towards him and started his homework as if nothing had happened. Remus shook his head and went over to join him.

"He's the biggest prick I have ever seen in my entire life," Toni said scowling," besides Sirius of course. They have absolutely no compassion for anybody but themselves."

"I wish some girl would give him a taste of his own medicine. You know, sleep with him and then dump him. Just so he could get a taste of how it feels." Lily said angrily.

"Are you kidding?" Ashley said, "He would _love _that. He'd get what he wanted without having to do the dirty work."

"Not if it was somebody he really liked," Sammi said, glancing at Lily. "And you're the only person he's ever liked or ever will like."

"Lily!" Dylan said, her eyes lighting up. "You should do it! He'd be crushed!"

"Dylan that's horrible!" Ashley said, surprised. "Lily's better than that, she's not going to sink to his level."

"Oh shut up Ash, you know he deserves it," Dylan said, waving her hand impatiently. "Think about it Lily, you'd be making him feel the pain that he's put every one of those girls through."

"Yuck, no!" Lily said disgusted. "I'm _not_ sleeping with James Potter."

Sammi's eyes widened when she saw Sirius get up and walk over to her sister, with a nervous expression on his face. She knew what was coming next. "Lily do it!" she said angrily. "If he knew how it felt, maybe he would stop doing it to other girls. And if Sirius saw his best friend in pain like that, maybe he'd stop too. Think about how many broken hearts you'd be preventing. Do it for all the girls that he's ruined."

Lily bit her lip as she looked over at the girl James had just dumped, who was sitting at a table sobbing with her head in her hands. Her friends were trying to comfort her while glaring at James.

"Alright, I'll do it." Lily said. The other four girls' eyes widened. None of them thought Lily would actually agree to it; sleeping with your worst enemy wasn't exactly a pleasant thing, even if she was doing it for a good cause…sort of.

"Are you serious?" Dylan squealed excitedly.

"Yep," Lily said, her voice full of determination.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the look on his face when you dump him." Toni said eagerly.

"Lily, I don't think you should, it's not very nice…"

"Ashley _shut up_," Dylan, Toni, and Sammi said together.

"Look, Ash, you need to stop being so innocent and saintly," Dylan said, annoyed. "We're almost eighteen, you need to stop acting like a fucking 10 year old."

"Sorry if you consider not wanting to ruin peoples lives saintly. And just because I'm not a slut like you doesn't mean I'm acting like a 10 year old." Ashley said through clenched teeth. "If I'm not enough of a bitchy whore for the four of you, maybe I'll just go find some new friends to hang out with." She got up and went over to two sixth year girls sitting near the fire

"Ashley no, she didn't mean it like that-" Lily started to call after her, but Dylan cut her off.

"Lily leave her, she'll come to her senses soon enough. She has to learn not to be such a goody two shoes all the time. Anyway, back to the James thing. You have to make it seem real. He knows you're not one of those easy bimbos he usually dates, so you can't sleep with him on the first night. You're going to have to date him for a few weeks before you do anything."

Lily groaned. "That would be torture," she whined. "Can't I just pretend that he's so sexy I can't resist? He's such a swellhead, he'd believe it."

"No," Sammi said sternly. "He would get really suspicious, he knows you're not like that."

"Plus, the longer you go out with him, the harder it'll be on him when you break up," Toni said, grinning maliciously.

"Alright, alright fine. I'll _try_. I'll tell him I like him at our meeting tonight."

The three girls squealed and hugged Lily. She stood up and walked up the staircase to her dormitory to get ready. If she was going to really destroy James, she had to make him want her even more than he already did. She rummaged through her trunk, looking for the most provocative muggle clothes she had. She settled on a tight red halter-top that ended right above her belly button and showed a bit of cleavage, and a short black miniskirt. She straightened her hair and curled it slightly inward at the bottom, the way she liked it best. When she was all ready she left the dormitory and went down to the common room, winking at her grinning friends as she passed them, and over to James.

"You ready to go James?" she said sweetly, walking up to where him, Remus, Sirius, and Peter were sitting.

All four of them looked up and their jaws dropped.

"Holy shit Evans!" Sirius said his eyes widening, "you look HOT,"

James smacked Sirius in the back of his head. "Why are you being nice to me?" he said, suspiciously.

"Well, I've decided you were right. We are going to be spending a lot of time together this year, so we should make the best of it. I want to be friends."

"Er, right," James said, sure that she was playing some kind of joke on him. "Stop drooling, Wormtail," he snapped at Peter, who was still gawking at Lily, unable to take his eyes off her. Peter jumped and looked down at the floor, blushing. "Well, all right then, let's go," James said, getting up.

Lily noticed Remus staring at her with his eyebrow raised. "What's with the clothes and the makeup?" he said. "That's not you and you know it."

She shrugged. "Just something I threw on."

She walked out through the portrait hole with James, and down to the Head students' office.

She sat down on the couch in the middle of the room, closing her eyes and preparing for the worst as James went into the back room to get some papers from the filing cabinet.

            "Er, James, I…I have to tell you something," she said tentatively as he came back into the room and sat down at the other end of the couch.

            "Um, okay," he said, wondering what the hell had gotten into her.

            "James, I like you…a lot…" she said quietly, surprising herself at how convincing it sounded.

            James gave her a skeptical look. "No, no you don't. You hate me with a passion, and seeing as you know how much I like you, that's really horrible of you to do to me, you know, leading me on like that."

            It took all of her self-control not to slap him. "Who's he to talk about it not being right to lead people on?" she thought incredulously.

            "I'm not leading you on, I swear," she said, forcing herself to continue on without screaming at him. "I really like you. I've just been pretending I despised you because I was scared you'd use me like the other girls."

            James still couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you sure you're not under the imperious curse?" he said, staring into her eyes, looking for signs of blankness. "Or some kind of love potion or something?"

            "No, James, I like you, I really, really do." She said impatiently. "If I didn't, would I do this?"

            She slid over to his end of the couch and kissed him, taking even herself by surprised.

            After a few seconds she broke away and looked at him expectantly.

            He just gaped at her, numb with shock, and too surprised to say anything.


	5. V

The news that Lily and James were now "dating" spread like wildfire around the school. Lily couldn't go anywhere without receiving either dirty looks from the girls who wanted James or advice from the girls who had already been played by him.

"I do _not_ understand what they're so jealous about," Lily said, bewildered, as a group of glaring girls passed her and Sammi as they stood outside of the Transfiguration classroom. "He's horrible,"

"Well he _is _hot, a quidditch superstar, and the most popular boy in school." Sammi said fairly. Upon seeing the glare that Lily gave her, she added, "I know, I know, he's also an arrogant, pigheaded git."

"Yes, he is! It's only been three days and I'm already dying, I can't stand it much longer. And he hasn't even _tried_ to make a move on me yet. Toni said I have to stop him three times before I do anything if I'm going to make it seem real. This is going to take forever."

"Aw poor Lily. Forced to date a gorgeous, popular guy, who's the best kisser in the world and amazing in bed. Could life get any worse?"

"Ha, ha, very funny."

"You know I'm just kidding. I know it must be torture for you. You're made of stronger stuff than any of us thought." Sammi said grinning and slapping her on the back. "And speaking of your lover-boy, here he comes now," She said, looking past Lily to where James and Remus had just appeared around the corner of the corridor.

"Oh joy," Lily said sarcastically. She took a deep breath, turned around, and strode over to James. "Hey baby!" she said, in her fakest, most cheerful voice, and she gave him a kiss.

Sammi covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her laugh, and followed.

"I'll leave you two alone then," she said, still giggling as Lily and James went inside the classroom, hand in hand.

She walked over to Remus who was eyeing her suspiciously.

"Tell me what you're doing. I'm going to find out eventually, so just tell me now."

"I have no idea what you're talking bout," Sammi said innocently.

"I _know_ Lily doesn't like James, so just tell me what the hell you girls are doing."

"You don't have a very high opinion of your best friend, do you?" Sammi said in a tone of mock reprimand.

"You know perfectly well what I meant," Remus said rolling his eyes. "Just tell me what you're planning, because I know you're up to something,"

"I still don't know what you're talking about." Sammi said sweetly. "They make such a cute couple don't they?"

"You're really frustrating sometimes, you know that?" Remus said tiredly.

"You know you love me," she said, smirking and walking into the classroom.

"More than you'll ever know," Remus mumbled, shaking his head, and walking in after her.

Sammi and Remus sat down at the desk behind James and Lily, and a few minutes later Toni and Dylan came in and sat behind them. A short while after that, Ashley walked in just as the bell rang, and proceeded straight to the back of the room to sit with two Ravenclaw girls without even so much as a glance towards the Gryffindors. Since her and Dylan's fight, Ashley had refused to speak to any of the girls.

"Something happen between you girls and Ash?" James asked noticing this.

"Er, yeah. We had a small fight." Lily said glancing over at Ashley.

"About what?" James asked curiously. He had known Ashley since before Hogwarts, they were both part of two of the wealthiest, most powerful pureblood families in the wizarding world, so their parents were friends. As far as James knew she had never fought with anybody except Dylan. She was one of the nicest people he knew, and he couldn't possibly think of anything she would get into such a big fight with her three best friends and sister over.

"Oh, um, it's nothing, really." Lily said nervously, hoping he wouldn't keep interrogating her. She definitely couldn't tell him the real reason, and she wasn't very good at coming up with cover stories.

Just then Sirius burst into the room, followed by a Hufflepuff girl. Her makeup was smeared and her hair was slightly messed up, as was his.

"Sorry Prof-" Sirius said looking around for Professor McGonagall. "Oh, she's not here yet. Excellent."

Completely ignoring the girl who had run in with him, he sat down at the desk in front of James and Lily.

"So Blake wasn't a good enough fuck for you either, then?" Lily spat.

"No," Sirius said, glaring at her. "I dumped her before I got her into bed for your information."

"Oh, so she was one of the few actually smart enough to say no to you?

"If you _must_ know Evans', I dumped her because I found out she's been hanging out with Regulus, and his friends lately."

"You dumped your girlfriend because you found out she's friends with your brother?" Lily said incredulously. "Your excuses get worse every time. Do you enjoy seeing people in pain or something?"

"No, but my brother does." Sirius said angrily, turning around.

"How can you be friends with him," Lily said, exasperated. "He's off his rocker."

"No, Lily, you don't understand." James said quietly. "His brother is a Slytherin. He's one of Malfoy and Snape's friends. He's a death eater."

Lily's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"

James threw his hand over her mouth. "Just drop it, we'll talk about it later okay?"

Lily nodded looking frightened; Malfoy and Snape were dangerous people, and so were all their friends. They were really deep into the dark arts, and if Blake was hanging around them…

Just then, Professor McGonagall entered the room, silencing everybody and starting the lesson, distracting Lily from her thoughts.


	6. VI

            Thanks to Val, the only reviewer of the last chapter. Come on guys, I really want your opinion on this story. I have the next few chapters planned out, but after that I don't know what I'm doing yet so feel free to send me anything that you want in the story. If you like my story, tell me. If you hate it, tell me. I just need feedback, good or bad. I need to know how I'm doing with this and whether or not you like it or not. So _please_ review.

            I've decided to hold the next chapter hostage until I get at least 20 reviews; right now I have 16 so all I need is four! When I get twenty, I'll do individual thank yous to everybody who reviewed so far. So like I said before, _please _review.

            And to The Counter: Thanks for reviewing, but I have absolutely no idea what you meant by your reviews. If you could be a little more specific, I'd really appreciate it lol.

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            'That Hufflepuff girl, Amelia Bones, her brother Edgar was killed by Voldemort. Edgar's like the twentieth Auror this year to be killed by Voldemort, and now your telling me my sister's one of his followers?" Sammi said, plainly horrified.

            As promised, James had explained why Sirius was so touchy about his brother. Lily had immediately run to Sammi to tell her, but now she was almost sorry she did. She could see the horror in her friend's eyes, and she knew it must feel horrible to find out that the only family you have left is a follower of the most evil dark wizard of all time.

            "Well no, we're not sure she's a Death Eater, James just said she hangs out with people who almost definitely are."

            "Right, well I know Blake can be a bit of a bitch, but she's not _that_ thick." Sammi said, trying to convince herself more than Lily. "I'm pretty sure she doesn't get pleasure out of seeing innocent people die."

            Lily bit her lip. "Yeah, you're right. We just need to watch her a bit more closely."

            "So…" Sammi said, casting around for a change of subject, "your first official date with James is tonight. We need to make you look extra tantalizing."

            "I think I'm going to have to break into Dylan's trunk for this one," Lily said grinning.

            She opened up Dylan's trunk and laid all of her clothes on the floor. She and Sammi walked around, trying to pick out which outfit was the sexiest. 

            Finally, they decided on a tight pair of faded low-rise jeans, with a tight black tube top that ended right above her belly button, to show off the new piercing she had gotten the other day. In her ears were big silver hoops, and her hair was scrunched, slightly curly, slightly straight, and had lots of gel in it to give it that just out of the shower look. Dylan and Toni returned from the library a short while later, and did her makeup. She didn't have much on, because she already has a flawless complexion, but the little bit that she had was done to perfection."

            Dylan grinned, "James is going to drop dead when he sees you, Lil,"

            "Don't get my hopes up," Lily said, laughing.

            Suddenly the door opened and Ashley entered. She looked at Lily, shook her head, grabbed a book off of her bed and walked out.

            Lily decided enough was enough and ran out after her.

            "Ash, stop, this is getting stupid."

            Ashley chose to ignore her and kept walking, but Lily wasn't going to give up that easy. She followed Ashley out of the portrait hole and into the library. Finally Ashley got annoyed and turned around.

            "What the hell do you want Lily?"

            "Ash, please don't listen to Dylan. We don't think you're immature, or saintly, or anything else that she said. If you really want to know the truth, we all respect you, a lot. You have the most willpower out of anybody any of us have ever met."

            "I don't want to be friends with people who make a game out of destroying somebody. What you're doing is horrible, and I can't stand it."

  "Ash, think about how many girls he's done this to in the past. He's turned innocent girls into whores and then broke their hearts; I just want him to know how it feels. Think about how many future girls I'd be saving if I did it. He's bound to stop using them for sex when he knows how it feels; if he doesn't then he's even more of a jackass than we thought."

            "I know, but…all you're doing is stooping down to his level. If you go through with this you'll be no better than him."

            "I know, I just…he _needs_ to know how it feels."

            "Yes but, that doesn't make it right-"

            "Ashley, _please_, I miss you, and I hate not talking to you, and Sammi and Toni do too. And I know Dylan does too, even if she won't admit it."

            "Alright fine. But I'm not going to pretend I like what you're doing to James, and I'm not going to help you with it in any way. And I'm _not _taking any more of Dylan's bullshit."

            Lily squealed and threw her arms around her friend. "Alright I have to go, I'll talk to you later."

            "Bye."

- - - -  - -- -  - - - -  - -- -  - - -  - -- -- - - - -  - -

Lily entered through the portrait hole ten minutes later, and looked around for James.

"Evans, looking hot."

Lily turned around to see Sirius grinning at her. "In your dreams, Black."

James got up from the armchair he was sitting in and walked over to Lily, careful to slap Sirius on the back of the head on his way. "Ready to go?"

"Yep."

They exited through the portrait hole and walked through the corridors hand in hand.

"Er, James, how are we getting to Hogsmeade? It's not a Hogsmeade weekend."

James grinned. "I have my ways, just don' tell anybody, ok?"

"Um, ok."

"Hang on," James said stopping and putting his hand in the pocket of his pants. He pulled out a piece of parchment and quickly checked it over. "Alright, all clear-"

Lily's eyes widened as she stared at the parchment. "Where'd you get that," she gasped, grabbing it out of his hands.

"Sirius, Remus, Peter and I made it last year." James said proudly.

"You _made_ it? It's amazing!" Lily said in awe.

"Yeah, it's pretty useful. Come on, we'd better go before somebody comes."

A few minutes later, James held out his arm to stop Lily in front of a statue of a one eyed witch. He walked up to it, tapped the witch, and said "Dissendium." The statue's hump opened up and again Lily stared in awe.

"How do you know so much about the school?" she said suspiciously.

"Marauders never reveal their secrets," he said with a grin he hoisted himself into the hole. "After I go down, you do the same thing. I'll be at the bottom to catch you."

Before she could answer he slid down, but Lily was too afraid to go after him.

"Come on, Lily," James called up through the shoot. "Just jump in there and slide down, I promise I'll be here to catch you."

"Isn't there another way to go?" she called back pleadingly.

"This is the quickest way. Just trust me alright?"

            Lily took a deep breath and climbed into the hole. She closed her eyes, gathering her courage, and then pushed herself down.

            She slid a considerable way down what felt like a stone slide, then flew out on the bottom into James. He fell backwards, so that they were both on the floor, and Lily was on top of him. He looked into her eyes and grinned.

            "You planned that, didn't you?" she said, laughing despite herself.

            "Oh, I hoped for it," James said, pulling her head down so he could kiss her.

            As the kiss deepened, Lily caught herself thinking, "Wow, he's good at this."

            She jumped up off him, frightened; she despised James and she was supposed to hate the seconds she had to spend with him. She definitely _wasn't_ supposed to enjoy kissing him. "Just because he's a good kisser doesn't mean I don't hate him, it just means he's had a lot of practice…which he has," she thought to herself. Suddenly she snapped out of her thoughts and looked at James; she was going to have to do some quick thinking to cover this one up.

            "Don't look at me like that," she said, smirking. "Do you _really _want to spend our first make-out session on the floor of an underground cave? I mean, it's not too romantic, is it?"

            "No," James said disappointedly, standing up. "I suppose you're right…"

            "Don't worry," she said seductively, walking over to him and placing her hands on his chest. She craned her neck upwards and whispered into his ear. "We'll pick up where we left off when we get back to Gryffindor Tower tonight."

            James grinned. "Alright." He took out his wand, muttered _"Lumos!"_ and instructed Lily to do the same. They walked through a low, narrow, earthy passageway for a while, and then came to the foot of some worn stone steps. They climbed up the steps, and suddenly James motioned for Lily to stop. He slowly lifted up the ceiling above him, which Lily realized to be a trap door. He quickly glanced around and climbed out, and then grabbed Lily's hand to help her do the same.

            As she straightened up, James threw a cloak around her. "Is that a-?"

            "Yeah, it's an invisibility cloak, my dad gave it to me when I was a kid. But shh, we need to be quiet; the shop owners are still upstairs, they mustn't hear us.

            "Ok, but where are we?" Lily whispered.

            "Cellar of Honeydukes."

            Lily's eyes widened once again, but she decided not to voice her amazement. She had a feeling that throughout the night she was going to see a lot more of James' little tricks, each one more astounding than the next.

My longest chapter yet, over 1800 words! Next chapter is going to be the more of their date, and what happens when they get back to the common room. I know what I'm doing but if you want you could email me what you readers would like to happen. If your ideas are better than mine, I'd rather use yours. And I'll give you credit for them lol. Remember, please review!! -Britt


	7. VII

Thanks for the reviews!!!! I'll do individual thank yous like I promised in the next chapter, I wanted to update quickly so I couldn't do them in this one. But please keep reviewing, and if you want anything special to happen, tell me and if I like it I'll put it in the story. I'll update again when I have 25 reviews. Thanks again :) ! 

            Lily and James spent the rest of the night wandering around Hogsmeade. After visiting a few stores, they stopped in at the Three Broomsticks for a butter beer, and then they resumed shopping. After a few hours, they snuck back into Honeydukes and returned to Hogwarts through the trap door. As soon as they got to Hogwarts, they headed down to the kitchen for a snack, so that by the time they got back to the Common Room it was well after midnight. The room was deserted when they stepped into the portrait hole, so Lily decided to make her move then and there; she didn't think she could stand pretending to like James much longer. She walked over to the nearest couch, motioning for him to follow. She smiled seductively at him, and then reached up and grabbed his tie, pulling him down. As soon as his lips met hers, she kissed him passionately. She began to lean back, pulling him with her, so that he was on top of her.

            As the kiss deepened, she felt his warm hand slide under her shirt, but halfway up her stomach he hesitated and then pulled away.

            "Listen, Lily, we need to talk." He said, quietly. "This-this isn't you. You're not like this and I know it. Ever since we started dating, you haven't been yourself. You've been dressing, er…different, and you've been acting kind of odd. Are you doing this all for me?"

            Lily inwardly rolled her eyes. "Typical James," she thought. "He thinks everybody's world revolves around him." Before she had a chance to reply, he began speaking again.

            "If you are, I just want to let you know there's no need. You're perfect exactly the way you are. You're not like the other girls, and that's what I love about you. You're smart, funny, and best of all you respect yourself, don't change who you are for me or anybody else."

            Lily felt her stomach twist in a knot. She couldn't go through with the plan…that was the sweetest thing anybody had ever said to her, she couldn't hurt him like that.

            "Get a grip on yourself," a voice in her head told her, "it's probably just another one of his tricks to get you into bed; he probably says things like that to all the girls."

            The last thing she wanted to do was inflate his already overlarge head, but she wanted to get this over it with tonight. "I'm sorry James, I just wanted you to want me as much as I want you."

            "Believe me, I do," he said, "but I'll wait until your ready, because I know you're not like that and I respect that."

            "Probably something Remus told him to say," Lily thought, trying to convince herself that he really wasn't this sweet. "But James, I _am _ready. I know you love me, so I know you would never hurt me."

            "Are you sure?" James asked, looking as though all of his dreams had come true.

            Lily nodded, and James grinned. "Alright then, let's go up to my dorm. The others will be asleep by now."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - -  - - - - - - 

Lily woke up the next day and kept her eyes closed against the sunlight streaming into the room. Her head was on James' chest, and she felt his strong arms wrapped around her.

"Finally I can get this over with," she thought happily as she quickly opened her eyes and sat up.

"Morning, beautiful," James said, smiling, as Lily broke free of his grip.

"Morning," she said quickly, thinking of how to dump him. Then, upon noticing that the bed hangings were open and the other three boys weren't there, she added, "what time is it?"

"1:30, everybody's down at lunch. I've been up for about an hour."

"You watched me sleep for an hour?"

"Yeah, you looked so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you," he said, reaching up and running a hand through her hair. "I love waking up next to you, I want to do it every morning,"

"Er, yeah, about that…James, I don't think this is going to work out."

"W-what?" he said, in shock.

"Tell me," Lily said, smirking, "How does it feel to be beaten at your own game?"

James just stared at her, not fully comprehending what was happening. He, James Potter, had _never_ been dumped before.

"Now you know what it feels like to be used, how all those poor girls felt when you tore their hearts out." Lily said viciously, standing up and walking towards the door. When she reached the doorknob she stopped and turned back. "You know, for the smartest guy in school, you're pretty thick. I can't believe you actually thought that _I _could ever like scum like you." With that, she turned and left, a triumphant smile upon her face.

Lily walked out the door and headed towards her own dorm to get dressed. The common room was empty, and so was her room, which she was thankful for. She felt horrible, and she had no idea why. She closed the door and leant against it, as tears slowly started to pour down her face.

She hated James with a passion, so why did she feel so guilty about hurting him?

Lily suddenly heard footsteps coming up the stairs on the other side of the door. She quickly wiped away the tears and tried to regain her composure.

The door burst open and in walked Dylan, Toni and Sammi, just as Lily sat down on her bed.

"Did you do it?" Dylan said anxiously when saw Lily.

"Yup," Lily said casually, leaning back. She knew the girls would be dieing for the details, and thought it would be funny to make them beg.

"So?" Sammi said impatiently.

"So what?"

"HOW'D HE TAKE IT?" Toni yelled.

A wicked grin spread across Lily's face. "I broke the git's heart."


	8. VIII

            THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS! I love you all! It's kind of sad, but the whole time I was in Puerto Rico I was writing this story in my head. Yes, I know, pretty pathetic. I had this chapter written yesterday morning, but then my computer got really messed up and wouldn't turn on, so I rewrote it on my sister's computer. It's really short, because I couldn't remember everything I wrote the first time and I really wanted to get this up soon.

- - - -  --  - - - -  -  - - - - - - - - -

"Potter! STOP SPACING OUT! I want to get this done with!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you have some place to be after this? Going to break another guys heart perhaps?__

"Get _over_ it. It's been, like, two weeks."

      It was around two weeks after the break up, but it was the first time Lily and James had been alone together since. They were at their weekly Head meeting, except it couldn't exactly be called weekly seeing as James had skipped the last two. The only reason he was there at that moment was because Remus had continually reminded him that the Halloween dance was in a few weeks and if he and Lily didn't get a move on they wouldn't be finished in time. They weren't exactly getting very far, however. The depression James had been feeling over the past few weeks had suddenly been replaced by anger, and he found it hard to concentrate on what they were doing.

      "I _am_ over it, Evans," he hissed. "I'm just pissed that I wasted these past six years on you. If I had known what a bitch you really were, I wouldn't have wasted my time."

      "Ouch, that hurts," Lily said rolling her eyes.

      "Whatever, let's just finish this and leave."

      "That's _exactly_ what I've been saying. You're so immature."

      "And you're such a slut."

      "Ugh, I can't work with you. Finish it yourself."

      Lily stood up and threw the papers at James. She turned around and marched out the door, before he even had a chance to protest.

      James grinned, knowing that he had succeeded in pissing her off. He collected all the papers and a few minutes later he followed Lily out the door. There was no way he was planning an entire dance by himself, he needed the help of the other Marauders.

      As James stepped through the portrait hole, he spotted Lily sitting on the couch, sobbing. James raised his eyebrow at her; he hadn't realized he had gotten to her _that _much.

      "What's wrong, Evans? Realized how stupid it was of you to dump me?" He said, smirking.

      "James please just go away, I don't need this right now." Lily pleaded, the tears pouring down her face.

      "Jesus Lily, I was only trying to piss you off before, I didn't mean it,"

            "This isn't about you James, just _go away_,"

            "Well then what's it about?"

            "GO AWAY!"

            "Not until you tell me what's wrong."

            "FINE!"

            Lily stood up and thrust a paper that was in her hand into his. James slowly unfolded it and began to read. It was a letter from the ministry. The farther he read, the more sick he felt; Lily's parents…murdered by Voldemort.

            "Happy?" she said, the tears still flowing.

He bit his lip; as much as he hated Lily right now, he had to comfort her; nobody deserved their parents getting murdered by the most evil dark wizard of all time.

      "Oh shit…Lily I'm sorry."

      Without thinking, he hugged her; it broke his heart to see her in so much pain, and he wanted more than anything to make her happy again. To his surprise, she didn't push him away, but cried on his shoulder.

      They stayed there for hours in silence. James knew there was nothing he could say to comfort her, so he just let her cry it out.

      A few hours later, Sammi came down stairs, yawning.

      "Lily, where have you been, it's two in the morning-"

      Her eyes widened, as her tired brain fully comprehended what she was seeing. Lily standing there sobbing into James' chest. James' arms were around her, and he was stroking her hair.

      "Lily, what's wrong?"

      Lily stepped away from James and wiped her eyes. "My parents…"

            She couldn't bring herself to say it, so she handed Sammi the letter.

            Sammi's eyes filled with tears as she read it. "Lily, I'm so sorry," she whispered.

            Lily couldn't speak as even more tears cascaded down her face.

            "James go get some sleep," Sammi said putting a comforting arm around Lily. "I'll take her."

James nodded, his throat too tight to speak. He slowly made his way up to his dorm.

            Sammi took Lily upstairs to their dorm and sat down next to her on her bed.

            "Lil, you need to try and get some sleep, we'll talk in the morning."

            Lily nodded and hugged Sammi, the tears still falling uncontrollably. She pulled the curtains closed around her bed, and Sammi got up to go to her own.

            Lily laid there for hours, thinking about her parents and what her life was going to be like without them. The letter didn't mention anything about Petunia so Lily assumed she was all right, not that she cared. By the time the tears dried and she finally drifted off to sleep, the first rays of sunlight were beginning to drift through the window.

- - -- -  -- - -  - - - - - - - - --  -- - - - - -  - -

- 

            Ok, I'll admit it, this chapter was not at all up to my usual standard. I'm sorry!!! Everything's kind of rushed, and I'm skipping periods of time…it's just that I have the whole Halloween dance planned out and I really want to get to it. I have a basketball tournament today and Thursday, so this chapter won't be up till Saturday proabably. Again, I'm sorry! Please review.__


	9. IX

Thanks for the reviews!! I just want to say one thing before I get started…

To Aly Marie Lupin: I read _every _review I get. Just because I don't do something that somebody says in a review, doesn't mean I didn't read it. I know you said to make that last chapter extra long, but I just didn't have time. I play a lot of sports, and I take advanced honors classes, so even during the holiday breaks I'm busy and have a lot of work to do. Plus, I went on vacation. I don't spend my life in front of the computer, and I don't think it's fair that you tell me you're going to stop reading my story because of that.

Ok now that I got that out, here's the chapter…__

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

*THREE DAYS LATER*

            Lily slowly walked down the stairs to the Common Room. She still wasn't ready to face the world but she needed a change of scenery, she had been shut up in her dorm for three days. It was breakfast time anyway, so she assumed it would be empty.

            She was so absorbed in thoughts of her parents, that she didn't notice the boy sitting on the couch as she sat down in the armchair by the fire.

            "Lily?"

            Lily looked up, startled. It was James. "Oh, hi. I-I thought everybody would be down at breakfast."

            "Quidditch tryouts were last night, and I have to pick the new team by lunch time." He motioned to the papers spread out on the tables in front of him, which were covered in stats and scribbled notes.

            "Oh."

            An awkward silence fell. Lily stared into the fireplace, lost once again in thoughts of her parents, and James continued his work.

            Suddenly James looked up and broke the silence. "Are you okay?"

            Lily continued staring into the fire as she answered. "No, but I'm getting there."

            "It'll get better with time."

            "I suppose."

            Another silence fell, but this time it was Lily who broke it.

            "Listen, James…I want to thank you…"

            "For what?"

            "For being there for me the other night."

            "Oh, no don't thank me, it was nothing…"

            "No, it wasn't nothing. I was horrible to you, I always have been, and all you've ever been is nice to me. I'm sorry."

            "Forget it, it's past history,"

            Just then the portrait hole opened and Gryffindors began spilling into the Common room. Lily jumped up; she wanted to get away before people started talking to her.

            "Ok, well I'm going to go."

            "Alright, bye."

            Lily bit her lip. "Friends?"

            James smiled and nodded, "Friends."

- - - -  -  - -  - - - - - - - 

When Lily returned to class a week later, she was pretty far behind the rest of the students. At the end of Transfiguration, the last class of the day, Professor McGonagall called her up to her desk.

"Ms. Evans, after missing over a week of classes, it's understandable that you're quite far behind everybody else, but we need to catch you up on the work. I've decided to get you a tutor. I spoke to Mr. Potter last night, and he is willing to do it. You are to meet him in the library after dinner every night."

Lily stared. "James is going to tutor me?"

McGonagall sighed. "I know you're not particularly fond of him, but he's the smartest student in this year, he's best for the job."

"Oh…alright. Thank you professor."

Lily turned and left to catch up with her friends. Normally, she would have been furious that she had to spend even more time with James, but right now she didn't really mind too much. She and James had been getting along quite well recently, and she now knew that he wasn't as bad as she thought. He had grown up a lot, and he wasn't as conceited.

Over the next few weeks Lily and James became the best of friends. Between the tutoring sessions, the Heads meetings they were now having daily to make up for the missed ones, and all of their other heads duties such as patrolling the corridors, they spent almost every second of their day together, except for when James was at quidditch.

All the work was really taking a toll on them, and they were both exhausted. The night before the dance, they were in the library yet again, desperately trying to finish up their assignments.

They were to be excused from classes the next day, because as Head Boy and Girl they needed to decorate for the Halloween feast and then the Halloween dance. Their teachers, not wanting them to fall behind, gave them the work a day early; they had been in the library for hours trying to finish it.

Finally at about 11:30, James triumphantly threw down his quill and said, "Finished!"

Lily groaned. "How are you done? I still have half of the Potions essay to write!"

"Sucks for you."

Lily gave him the middle finger and went back to her work.

James laughed. "Here, Lil, just copy mine."

Lily shook her head. "No, that's cheating. I'm Head Girl, I can't get caught doing stuff like that."

"Come on, you deserve a break. Just reword my last few paragraphs, nobody will know."

Lily considered it for a moment and then smiled. "Alright, thanks." She pulled James' parchment towards her resumed her work.

Ten minutes later, she threw down her quill and said, "Finished!" mimicking James.

They gathered up their things and exited the library, talking and laughing.

Lily groaned as they came to the foot of yet another staircase. "Why does Gryffindor Tower have to be so far away from the library? I'm exhausted."

James sighed "Tell me about it. Nobody said being Head Boy required this much work; if they had I probably would have turned it down."

"Still, we did a great job, the dance is going to be amazing. We make a pretty good team."

"Yeah, we do."

Lily was struck by a sudden thought. "Speaking of the dance, who are you going with?"

"Remus' cousin, Jenna Murphy. She's a Ravenclaw sixth year."

"Don't you think Remus will be pissed when you sleep with her and then dump her the next morning?"

"No actually, I'm not going to do that this time. I like her, a lot, otherwise I would never go out with her; Remus would kill me if I broke her heart."

Lily looked up, stunned. "You actually like her? When did this happen?"

"I don't know, we've always been friends, I just sort of started seeing her differently I guess. I've been wanting to ask her out for a few weeks, but with all this work I didn't really have time to have a girlfriend. Now that the dance is over with I think I'm going to do it, probably tomorrow night."

"Awww, I think our little Jaimsie is growing up," Lily said, grinning and pinching his cheek.

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah laugh it up."

"Come on, you know I'm only joking."

"Yeah, whatever. And who are you going with?"

"Brad Davies, he's also a Ravenclaw."

"After all that shit you give me and Sirius about being Playboys, you're going to the dance with Brad Davies? He's worse than us! Well, no he's not, but he would be if he had our skills…"

 "James, shut up. It's just a school dance, and I'm not stupid enough to get played by him. He was the first person to ask me, and he's really good-looking, and pretty nice, so I said yes."

"Alright," James said as they reached the portrait hole. "But going with him means that you can never tell me or Sirius off again for being the way we are."

"Nice try, but I'll tell off whoever I want, whenever I want." Lily said the password and they stepped in side.

"But that would make you a hypocrite," James said grinning and tapping her nose

Lily laughed and headed towards the stairs to her dorm. "Goodnight James."

James waved and headed towards his.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

OK that's it. Next chapter will be the dance. Hopefully it'll be up by tomorrow. Unfortunately, school starts again on Monday, and seeing as I haven't even started studying for mid-terms, I'm guessing I'm going to have to get started, which means that I'll be updating a little less frequently, probably about once a week.

            I know some of you probably think that it's unlikely that James and Lily became such good friends, but it's really not. They've been forced to spend all of their time together lately, so they got to know each other.

            Lily doesn't like James yet, or at least she doesn't know she does, and James thinks that he is completely over her, and really likes Jenna. (Just wanted to clear that up.)

            Please review! And remember, if you have any ideas for things that you want to happen, please tell me! I don't have writer's block yet, but knowing me I'll get it soon, and will be in need of you're help.- Britt


	10. X

            I'm sooooooooo unbelievably sorry that this chapter is a week late. But this time, it really wasn't my fault. Apparently, Fanfiction.net made a new rule that you can't post chapters containing only Authors Notes and I didn't know about it so I did, and they suspended my account for a few days. And then me and my boyfriend broke up and I was really upset so my friends decided to take me out partying all weekend. I've had this chapter written since last weekend, I just wasn't able to upload it because of the suspension and then I didn't have access to a computer.

And I'm even more sorry to say that you're probably going to have to wait another week for the next chapter. Mid-terms are in less than two weeks and I haven't even begun to study, so that's going to take up most of my time.

To AlyMarieLupin: I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to be mean about it. I was just having a bad day and was really stressed, so I guess I took it out on you. I was just trying to say that I don't have time to write really long chapters when people want me to, because I have a really busy life. And I do read every review I get, that's why I want them so badly. The opinion of my readers matters a lot to me. And to answer you're question, I'm in ninth grade.

To Snowflake1040: Thanks for the idea! It's a really great one, and I was going to use it, but then I remembered that my sister did almost the exact same thing in her story. I might use something similar to it later in the story though. Thanks again!

And now, on with the chapter…

- - - - - --- ---- -- -- - - - 

Lily sprinted up the stairs to her dormitory, about to have a nervous breakdown. The dance was in an hour and she had only just finished decorating the Great Hall; she was never going to be ready in time.

            James laughed and sat down on the couch with his friends. "I'll never understand why girls need so much time to get ready."

            "No clue," Remus said, shaking his head. "The rest of them have already been up there for hours."

            "So," James said, leaning back on the couch and relaxing for the first time in a while. "Who are you three going to the dance with?"

            "Well you'd know that if you were actually around once in a while." Sirius said bitterly.

            "What?" James said, confused.

            "It's mostly just been the three of us for the past month. I guess it's too much trouble for you to make time for your best friends."

            "It's not my fault!" James said indignantly. "I'd like to see you three try to be Head Boy and Quidditch Captain at the same time. It's hard work; I haven't even had time to sleep, let alone hang out with you guys."

            "You could of ma-" Sirius began to respond, but Remus cut him off.

            "Drop it, Padfoot. He's here now, that's what matters. The dance will be over with tomorrow and things will be back to normal."

            "Yeah, you're right, sorry Prongs."

            "That's ok. Now, tell me, who are you going with?"

            "I'm going with Ashley," Peter said proudly.

            James stared in shock. "Ashley Carter?"

            "The one and only."

            "Way to go Wormtail," James said, slapping him on the back. Ashley was one of the hottest girls in school, and unlike him, Sirius, and Remus, Peter usually had trouble getting girls. "And what about you two?" he said, looking at Remus and Sirius.

            "I'm going with Dylan, and Remus is going with Toni." Sirius said.

            James raised an eyebrow. "Dylan? Why her? You're never going to get her into bed."

            "If Moony can, I can," Sirius said cockily.

            "_I _was going out with her for two months. Plus, I'm not a prat like you and she knows that; she knows you're just going to dump her the next day. You'll never be able to do it."

            "I wouldn't be too sure of that," James said, grinning. "I didn't even have to ask her out before I got her into bed. It's funny, her and Ashley are identical twins, but they couldn't be more different."

            The guys continued talking, James catching up on everything that he had missed, until they realized they had about fifteen minutes until they had to leave, and went upstairs to get ready. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lily stepped out of the shower and quickly dried herself off. She threw on her bathrobe and ran out into the dorm. She sat down in a chair in front of the vanity and Dylan and Toni rushed over and began doing her hair and make-up. Ashley was already sitting down in a chair next to Lily, and Sammi was doing hers."

"I'm so glad this is finally going to be over," Lily said, closing her eyes as Toni began to apply eye shadow. "I've barely had any time for you girls lately."

"Yeah, we know, we've missed you, Lil," Dylan said, brushing Lily's hair.

"I missed you too. So, who are you all going to the dance with?"

"Sirius," Dylan said casually, beginning to curl Lily's red locks, using a new spell she had discovered the other day.

Lily popped her eyes open and stared at Dylan through the mirror. "BLACK? Are you insane?"

"No. I know that he's just going to try to get me into bed, but he's hot and I just want to have a good time. I'm not thick enough to fall for him or anything."

Lily turned her gaze to Toni, who was continuing applying her make-up as if nothing was happening. "And you're okay with this?'

Toni nodded. "I'm over him, he's a prick. I'm going with Remus anyway."

"And I'm going with Amos Diggory," Sammi said excitedly.

"And what about you Ash?"

Ashley went pink and muttered something, and Dylan, Sammi and Toni burst out laughing.

      "What?" Lily said, confused.

      "She's going with Peter Pettigrew." Dylan said, still laughing.

      Lily raised her eyebrow. "And why would you want to do that?"

      "Shut up you guys," Ashley whined, "he's nice! He asked me and I felt bad saying no."

      Lily laughed along with her friends. "Ash, you're too nice for your own good sometimes."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

      About a half hour later, Lily's hair and makeup were finally finished. She quickly got up, grabbed her dress off of her bed, and went into the bathroom to get changed. She grinned as she looked into the mirror. She wasn't as conceited as James, but she still knew she looked hot. Her sparkly white dress was tight and slinky, all the way down to her ankles. There were two slits running up the side, stopping halfway up her thigh. The top was spaghetti strap, and showed a tiny bit of clevage, but not too much. Her bright red hair was set in elaborate curls, and her makeup was done to perfection, accenting her bright green eyes. She stepped out of the bathroom, still grinning.

      "Wow Lil, you look amazing!" Toni said enviously.

      "I know," Lily said, laughing. Sammi stepped into the room, looking equally as gorgeous as Lily.

            "Ready to go?"

      Lily nodded and bade goodbye to her friends. She and Sammi had to leave before the others, since they had dates from different houses and had to meet them in the Entrance Hall. They met up with James in the Common Room, and the three of them walked down to the Entrance Hall together.

      "You two are both looking extremely hot tonight by the way," James said, grinning as they walked down to the hall.

      James was the first to find his date; a few seconds after they arrived, an extremely pretty girl with long, straight black hair, and crystal blue eyes strode up to them.

      "Hey Jenna," James said, smiling.

      Lily didn't know why, but she felt a pang of jealousy as James hugged Jenna.

      "Well, we're gonna go…see you later."

      Lily and Sammi waved goodbye and continued searching for their dates. Lily finally spotted Brad and a few seconds later Sammi spotted Amos a few feet away. They said goodbye to each other and walked over to their dates.

      Brad grinned as he spotted Lily.

      "You look beautiful," he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Lily blushed.

      "Thanks."

      Brad took her arm and led her inside.

      Lily smiled as she stepped into the Great Hall and looked around at everybody enjoying themselves. She had to admit, she and James had done a pretty good job.

      The night went pretty well. Lily was having a great time with Brad, but every time she spotted James and Jenna, she got a weird feeling in her stomach and she had no idea why.

      After dancing through eight or nine straight songs, Lily was starting to get pretty tired, and the fact that the hall was unbearably hot wasn't helping. "Mind getting me a drink?" she asked Brad, fanning herself.

      "Sure," 

      "Thanks," she said, smiling. "I'm going to go sit down, meet me over there."

      Brad nodded, kissed her on the cheek, and turned and headed towards the drinks table. Lily turned the opposite way towards the back of the hall where there were lots of tables and chairs. She spotted Remus sitting alone at a table, staring at the people on the dance floor, looking pretty upset. Lily headed towards him puzzled. She sat down next to him but he appeared not to notice. Lily followed his gaze and spotted Sammi, looking pretty cozy with Amos.

      "You really love her, don't you?"

      Remus jumped and turned towards Lily. "What? What are you talking about?"

      "Sammi. You're in love with Sammi,"

       "No I'm not! She's my best friend, that's it, nothing more."

      "Oh come on, it's so obvious."

      Remus looked horrified. "It-it is?"

      "Yeah, pretty much. But don't worry, she's a dumb ass, she has no clue."

      "Lily, you have to help me, I can't take it anymore."

      "Just tell her how you feel."

      "I can't! It'll completely ruin our friendship. If she doesn't feel the same way, I'll never be able to even look at her again."

      "You _have_ to tell her, otherwise you'll live you're life regretting it."

      "I just can't, I know she doesn't feel the same way."

      "She might."

      "No, she doesn't. She's obsessed with that thing over there." He motioned to Amos disgustedly. "You hear the way she goes on and on about him."

      "She only likes him because he's good-looking. You're good-looking too, and sweet, funny, caring and a lot less shallow than most other guys out there; any girl would be lucky to have you. Just tell her!"

      Remus smiled. "Thanks Lil,"

      "No problem."

      Lily was struck by a sudden thought. "Wait a minute, where's Toni?"

      "Oh, she and Ashley went to the bathroom to 'freshen up'."

      "Oh, alright."

      Lily suddenly spotted Brad walking towards them with the drinks. She said goodbye to Remus and went to meet him.

      "Thanks," Lily said graciously as he handed her her drink.

      Lily noticed that Brad was looking a little bit nervous. "Listen, Lil, can we go talk somewhere more quiet? I have to ask you something.

      "Sure," she said, puzzled, as he took her hand and led her out of the hall.

- - - - - - -  - - - - -  - - - 

Yay, my longest chapter yet. The next chapter will be the rest of the dance. I didn't want to stop in the middle of it, but I really wanted to get a chapter up. Once again, I'm so sorry for the delay! I didn't get a lot of reviews for the last chapter, so I'll post again when I get 70. And once again, if you have anything at all that you want to happen in the story, tell me! Don't forget to review!-Britt


	11. XI

Thanks for all the great reviews!!! I love you all!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Lily followed him out of the hall, bewildered. What could he possibly have to ask that was making him so nervous?

They walked across the Entrance Hall, and into one of the unused classrooms near the marble staircase. Brad lit the candles with his wand and they both sat down on one of the desks.

Lily opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Brad cut her off.

"Lily, I really like you, and I wanted to know…will you go out with me?"

Lily was shocked and didn't know what to say. Brad was gorgeous, funny, sweet, charming…but there was something holding her back and she didn't know why. She remembered what James said when Lily had told him who she was going to the dance with.

"After all that shit you give me and Sirius about being Playboys, you're going to the dance with Brad Davies? He's worse than us! Well, no he's not, but he would be if he had our skills…"

She knew that James was probably exaggerating. Brad was the Ravenclaw quidditch captain, and James was the captain for Gryffindor, so they had disliked each other for a while. Plus, Lily could tell that Brad really liked her, or else he wouldn't be so nervous. So if it wasn't what James had said that was stopping her what was it? Brad was like the perfect guy, but it just wasn't enough. He wasn't…James.

Lily felt her heart drop down into her stomach as that thought ran through her had. She had known somewhat in the very back of her mind for weeks now, but she chose to not believe it. But now, she had admitted it to herself and there was no going back. She, Lily Evans, had fallen for James Potter.

"Lily say something," Brad said, uneasily.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't," Lily said, tears forming in her eyes and threatening to fall.

She turned and ran out of the classroom, but instead of going back to the dance she went upstairs to Gryffindor tower. She couldn't handle being around other people right now; she needed to be alone to sort out her feelings. Lily stepped into the Common Room and immediately made her way up to her dorm; ignoring the questioning looks she was getting from all the Gryffindors below sixth year that weren't allowed to attend the dance. She stepped inside and fell backwards onto her bed, the tears slowly falling down her face.

Lily couldn't believe she had let this happen. She was always the sensible one of the group. How had she fallen for James Potter, the infamous marauder, playboy extraordinaire, who she had utterly despised ever since she was eleven? And of course, she couldn't have fallen for him during the six years he had been trying to win her heart, it had to be as soon as he finally got over her and began to like someone new.

Lily felt sick as she remembered what she had done to him at the beginning of the year, how cruel she had been the morning she had dumped him; she had completely ruined her chances with him that day. On top of all this, she was now beginning to feel guilty for hurting Brad like that; she had just waked out on him with no explanation.

She decided to go back to the dance and explain to him what had happened. She got up off of her bed, fixed her makeup, and descended the stairs to the common room. In the common room she again ignored the weird looks the younger Gryffindors were giving her as she made her way towards the portrait hole. She climbed out of it and walked down towards the Great Hall, going over what she was going to say to Brad in her mind. She desperately needed somebody to talk to, but she was going to try and wait until the morning; she really didn't want to ruin anybody else's night.

Halfway down the second floor corridor, Lily heard somebody call her name, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Lily, why aren't you at the dance?"

She looked up and spotted Remus walking towards her, looking as depressed as she felt. Her heart leapt when she saw him, he was the perfect person to talk to.

"Remus! We need to talk, _now_." She grabbed him by his arm and pulled him into an empty classroom. As soon as he was sat down at a desk, Lily immediately began to explain the events of tonight as she paced back and forth.

By the time she was finished, she saw that Remus was grinning.

"It's not funny!" she cried indignantly. "Now on top of knowing that I like James and that I completely ruined any chance I had with him, I feel horrible for hurting Brad like I did."

Remus laughed, "Yes, it is funny. James has been chasing you around for _six years_. Now that you think he's finally over you and likes somebody else, you like him."

Lily stopped pacing and stared at Remus. "What do you mean now that _I think _he's over me? He likes Jenna now, doesn't he?"

"He _says_ he likes her, but come on, you can't just get over a six year crush in a few weeks. I know he still has feelings for you. You need to tell him how you feel."

"But that could ruin our friendship…"

Remus laughed again. "Didn't we have this exact conversation a few hours ago about me and Sammi?"

"Yeah, but…it's different with you two."

"No, it's not. You were right; we can't live our lives regretting things like this. You're going to tell James, and I'm going to tell Sammi, and we're going to hope for the best."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But what about Brad? I feel so bad about what I did to him."

Remus rolled his eyes. "He got over it pretty quick. He came up to Toni and asked her to dance. She asked where you were and he said you weren't feeling well and left. She went to dance with him and they were looking pretty cozy together, so I decided to come and look for you;  I didn't feel like staring at Sammi and Amos anymore and I could tell Brad was lying anyway."

Lily felt slightly better now that she knew that Brad was most likely faking liking her. Normally that would have pissed her off, but right now she had bigger things to worry about.

"Right, then I don't think I'm going back to the dance. Want to go back up to the Common Room and play some chess? We'll just tell everybody at the dance that we didn't feel good and needed to lie down."

Remus smiled and nodded. "Best idea I've heard all night."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

- 

*Two weeks later*

            Lily sat in Charms lost in thoughts about the boy in front of her. It had been two weeks, and she still hadn't told James how she felt. With each passing day her feelings for him were getting deeper and more painful, but she just couldn't tell him. He and Jenna were now a happy couple, and it killed her every time she saw them together. She loved everything about him, and she didn't understand how she had despised him for so long. All day and night she sat and thought about how she had hurt him in the beginning of the year, and she hated herself for it.

            "Hello, earth to Lily!"

            Lily looked up and saw her friends standing over her, laughing. The class had ended and everybody else had left. She blushed and stood up, gathering her things.

            "Oh, sorry, I'm just tired."

            As she, Sammi, Dylan, Ashley, and Toni walked down to the Great Hall for dinner, Dylan suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty classroom. The other girls followed.

            "Talk," Toni said, as she, Dylan, Sammi, and Ashley stared at Lily.

            "What?" Lily said, bewildered.

            "You've been acting really weird lately, something's up. Talk to us, we're your best friends, we're here for you." Ashley said concernedly.

            Lily bit her lip, she couldn't decide whether to tell them or not. They were her best friends, but she just didn't think they'd understand; she still really didn't understand how it had happened herself. She racked her brains for a suitable excuse to her behavior that she could use until she was ready to tell the truth.

            "Nothing, it's nothing. I've just been thinking about my parents a lot lately. I'm turning seventeen Saturday, and they're not around to see it. Come on, let's just go to dinner."

            She walked out of the room before the other girls could respond and they had no choice to follow her and wait till later to talk more.

            The five girls entered the Great Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table with Remus, Peter and Sirius. Lily stared at her plate, once again lost in thought about James while everybody around her talked and laughed. She didn't know how much more of this she could take; it was destroying her life. She was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Sirius yell across the hall, "Hey Prongs, mate,"

            Lily looked up and spotted James walking towards them, his arm around Jenna's waist.

            "Umm, I'm not feeling good, I'm going to go,"

            She jumped up and headed quickly towards the doors of the hall, staring at her feet as she went.

            Sammi slammed her fork down in frustration. "_Why won't she tell us what's wrong?_" she growled.

            "She's just having a hard time dealing with her parents' death," Remus said, shaking his head. "I'll go talk to her, I'm not hungry anyway."

            He jumped up and followed Lily out the door.

            Dylan stared after him with an eyebrow raised. "Does anyone else here think there's something going on between them, or is it just me?"

            "They've been spending an awful lot of time together recently," Ashley said, nodding.

            "Naw, Remus would tell us if there was," Sirius said, moving his bag away so James and Jenna could sit down.

            "And Lily would tell us," Toni said, reassuringly.

            "Lily would tell you what?" James asked Toni, grabbing everything within his reach and putting it on his plate.

            "Oh, nothing, we were just trying to figure out why she's been acting so weird lately."

            "Yeah, she has been acting really weird," James said thoughtfully. "Kind of depressed. No idea why?"

            Dylan shook her head. "She says it's because of her parents, but I'm not so sure she's telling us the truth."

            "Well whatever it is, we need to cheer her up," Sammi said, worriedly. "I've never seen her like this before."

            "I've got an idea!" Ashley said, her eyes oddly bright. "Her birthday is Saturday, how about we throw her a surprise party?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Remus walked through the corridors searching for Lily. He still hadn't found her by the time he had arrived at the portrait hole, so he figured she was in the common room. Sure enough, as soon as he said the password and the portrait swung open, he glimpsed her fiery red hair over the back of one of the armchairs.

"Lily?"

Lily jumped and turned around, but breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was only Remus. Remus could see the silent tears slowly pouring down her face and knew that she was one of the only people who knew exactly how he felt every time he looked at Sammi. She wasn't going out with Amos yet, but the way she always talked about him hurt exactly the same as it would seeing them together.

"Lily, you have to tell him, you can't do this to yourself. Jenna's my cousin, I love her, and I don't want her to get hurt, but I know the feelings she has for him don't even compare to yours. He's more of a trophy for her than a boyfriend."

Lily shook her head. "I can't tell him…I just can't."

"Well you're going to have to."

"You haven't told Sammi,"

"Well I've tried. It's just hard to get a word in with her babbling on and on about Diggory."

Lily smiled weakly. "It's kind of funny how we always have the same exact problems."

Remus smiled back. "Now we just have to help each other find the solution."

Lily wiped her eyes and stood up. "Wanna go back down to dinner, the others are probably finished by now?"

Remus nodded and they headed down to the Great Hall together.

- - - - - - - - 

YAY! LONGEST CHAPTER YET! OVER 2300 WORDS! Lol sorry I get overly excited about small things. Alright, I know this chapter wasn't up to standard quality wise, none of my recent updates have been, and I'm sorry. I've been extremely stressed out about midterms, and I'm having trouble balancing schoolwork, sports and a social life. That leaves very little time for writing and doing other things I want. There's probably a lot of typos in this chapter, because like I said I have absolutely no free time and I didn't have time to edit this. I'm extremely sorry to say that the next chapter will most likely take two weeks. Midterms are this week and next week, so I'm going to put all of the little time I have into studying.But I assure you, as soon as they're over I'm going to update A LOT more, and the quality of the chapters will be much better. Thanks for being so patient with me! Please review! - Britt


	12. XII

I know I said I wouldn't have this up for two weeks because of midterms, but I changed my mind! I realized I'm going to fail midterms anyway, so what's the point of spending all my free time studying? I have a feeling I'll regret this while I'm confined in a room with my number two pencil and don't know a single answer on the test, but oh well.

Thanks for the reviews! Seriously, you have no idea how much I crave them (yes I know, I'm strange).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Days had passed, and Lily still hadn't told James about her feelings. It was her seventeenth birthday, and she had just come back from a day of shopping in Hogsmeade with Sammi, which she had thoroughly needed. Shopping was her favorite thing to do and she needed a distraction her from her misery, even if it was temporary. She was now heading back to the Common Room to get ready for a "girls night out" with her friends.

            As they reached the portrait hole, Lily noticed that Sammi was grinning broadly.

            "And just what are you so happy about?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

            "Nothing," Sammi said, still grinning insanely.

            Lily shook her head, coming to the conclusion that her best friend was mad. She said the password, the portrait swung open, and she and Sammi stepped inside. The common room was pitch black, and seemed deserted.

            "What's going on-?" Lily said bewildered.

            "SURPRISE!" The lights flickered on, and the whole of Gryffindor house, plus many of Lily's friends from other houses jumped out at her.

            "Happy birthday Lily!" Sammi, Dylan, Ashley, and Toni ran over to her. Beaming. and showered her with hugs.

            Lily was stunned; nobody had ever done something this nice for her. "Wow, this is amazing, thank you," she said, beaming even more than her friends.

            "Hey, we helped too! Why don't we get hugs?"

            Lily turned around and saw the Marauders standing there, all grinning. Her heart leapt when she saw that for once James didn't have Jenna clinging to his arm. Lily laughed, "thank you," she said, giving each of them a hug. As she hugged Remus, she heard him whisper into her ear, "Tell him tonight. This could be your only chance."

            The party was exactly what Lily needed. There was music, dancing, food, and for the first time in weeks her thoughts were on something other than James…she was actually having fun. It ended too soon for Lily's liking, but she cheered right up again as she spotted the huge pile of presents waiting for her in the corner. She offered to help her friends clean up, but they refused to let her. She intended to go and open her presents, but James told her he needed to talk to her, alone. 

            Lily felt her heart racing as she followed him out of the Portrait Hole, and into an empty classroom a few feet away; what could he possibly have to talk to her about?

            "Listen Lily, you've been really down lately, is something wrong?"

            "No, it's nothing important."

            "Obviously it is if it's making you so depressed. Please just talk to me; tell me what's wrong."

            "I-I can't tell you."

            "Why not? I'm here for you, you can trust me, always remember that."

            Lily looked up into his crystal blue eyes, and remembered what Remus said, "Tell him tonight, this could be your only chance."

            "James I-I like you."

            "Wait-what?"

            Tears began to tumble down Lily's face. "I don't know how it happened-I know you have Jenna, but I just can't help it."

            James stared at her, just as he had done when she had told him she liked him at the beginning of the year, and a small bubble of hope began to rise up in Lily's chest. But suddenly, he spoke, and this time his voice was filled with anger.

            "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you really think I'm going to fall for that bull shit again?"

            Lily looked up stunned. "No, James, this isn't a joke. I really do like you."

"And to think I actually thought we were friends. You fucking slut, hurting me once wasn't bad enough? You just had to do it again, huh? Is seeing me happy really that horrible for you? God, I hate you _so much_."

            He turned around and walked out the door, slamming it behind him with such force that the glass broke into hundreds of tiny little pieces.

            Lily put a hand up to her mouth and leaned back against the wall, the tears spilling down her cheeks. How could he think that she would do something like that again?

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

Remus smiled as he watched Lily and James exit through the portrait hole, alone; it looked liked she was finally going to tell him.

He looked across the room to where Sammi was summoning trash from all over the room into a pile at her feet and watched her for a few moments. Everything about her was so perfect, he'd give anything to make her his.

He thought about Lily, probably right outside the portrait hole, spilling her heart out to James at that very moment. If she had the courage to tell James her feelings, then he definitely should be able to tell Sammi.

He looked around the Common Room, making sure that nobody was paying attention, and when the coast was clear he headed over to Sammi.

"Er, Sammi, can we talk?" he said tentatively.

Sammi looked up and nodded. "Anything to get me away from all this garbage. I _hate_ cleaning."

Remus stared at her, lost for words. This was even harder than he had thought, he had absolutely no idea what to say.

"Well, spit it out then, we haven't got all night," Sammi said, grinning.

"Well I-I…I kind of…"

Just then, James burst in through the portrait hole, fuming. Ignoring the questioning looks everybody gave him, he stomped up the stairs to his dorm without a word.

"What's with him?" Sammi said, bewildered.

"Oh shit…Lily," Remus muttered, completely forgetting what he was about to do and running out of the Common Room.

As soon as he stepped out through the Portrait hole, he heard a muffled sobbing sound coming from the classroom a few feet away. He stepped inside, and sure enough Lily was there, crying against the wall.

"Lil, what happened?" he said, rushing over to her.

Lily took her face out of her hands and stared miserably at Remus. "He-he didn't believe me, he thought I was trying to hurt him again. He called me a slut and said he h-hated me."

Remus hugged her and let her cry on his shoulder. "Don't worry," he said reassuringly, "I'll talk to him for you. He'll listen to me."

- - - -- - - - -- - - - 

Remus walked up the stairs to his dormitory a half hour later. James' curtains were drawn shut, but Remus knew that he was wide awake.

"James, get out here _now_."

The curtains flew open, and James stared angrily at him. "What do you want Moony? I'm trying to sleep."

"What the hell is wrong with you? Do you not realize how much you hurt Lily?"

"I didn't hurt her, that bitch has no feelings. After all I've done for her, where the fuck does she get off trying to ruin my life a second time?"

"She really does like you! I would know, it's all she's been talking to her about it for weeks. Why do you think she said no to Davies? And why do you think she's been so depressed lately? It's been torture for her seeing you with Jenna. She hates herself for what she did to you at the beginning of the year, she constantly beats herself up for it."

"Moony it's all an act. She's trying to make me miserable; she hates me, she always has."

"Prongs stop being such a bloody prick and open your eyes! It's not an act; she wouldn't do that…she's not like that anymore and you know it."

James didn't say anything. He was beginning to think he had overreacted. He and Lily had become really close lately, he had seen a different side of her, and he really didn't think that the friendship was an act. Plus, she had been really depressed lately…ever since him and Jenna had started going out; maybe she really did like him.

"Prongs, she likes you! _It's not an act_! Get over yourself and go apologize!" Remus yelled, snapping James out of his thoughts.

"I need to think about this, I'll talk to you in the morning," James snapped back, pulling the curtains around his bed closed to block everyone else out.

James lay in bed for hours, thinking things through. Why did Lily have to do this to him? He was perfectly happy with Jenna; he really had thought his feelings for Lily were gone. But now…he wasn't so sure. He still really wasn't sure whether or not Lily was just trying to hurt him again or if she really did like him. He really didn't think she would do something like that, but she had done it once before so it was impossible to tell. He punched his pillow in frustration, why was life so complicated?

Realizing that it was pointless to lie in bed, when he was obviously not about to fall asleep anytime soon, he grabbed his invisibility cloak from his trunk and left his dormitory. He figured he would take a nighttime stroll around the castle, maybe that would help him clear his mind. He threw the cloak over himself and began to descend the stairs not really paying attention to his surroundings, but froze when he heard voices. He looked up and spotted Lily and Sammi sitting on one of the couches in the common room. Lily had tears streaming down her face, and Sammi was looking sympathetic. He walked down a few more steps, so he could hear what they were saying.

"It's just-I like him _so_ much, how could he think I would try and hurt him again?" Lily said desperately

"Because boys are dumbasses," Sammi said shaking her head. "I'll talk to him, try and straighten it out."

"Remus already said he'd do that, but it won't help. I guess I deserve all of this for what I did at the beginning of the year."

"Oh no Lil, don't say that. It was our idea, we convinced you to do it. You deserve him and you're going to get him, it just might take some time."

James sighed and turned around back to his dormitory. Now he knew for a fact that she really did like him, but there was still the matter of his feelings, which he was completely unsure of. This was going to be a long night.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

James sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, staring at the door. It had taken him all night, but he had finally realized that it was Lily he was in love with, not Jenna. He had been lying to himself for a long time, and he now knew that. He had felt horrible about breaking up with her, but as he looked over at the Ravenclaw table to where she was laughing with her friends, he realized that she didn't really care too much.

Just then Sammi, Dylan, Toni, and Ashley walked in through the door, but Lily wasn't there. James waited until they were at the table, and then asked them where she was.

"She's too depressed to come down because some dick broke her heart," Dylan said nastily.

"Well, I'm about to fix that," James said jumping up and heading out the door and towards Gryffindor Tower. He broke into a run when he reached the corridor with the portrait hole, said the password, and rushed through it. He looked around the common room, but Lily wasn't there, so he headed up the stairs to her dorm. The steps became a slide halfway up, but he quickly muttered the counter curse to change them back, and continued walking up the stairs. He got to the seventh year girls dorm, and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so he knocked again. A few seconds later, Lily opened the door, drying her eyes on her sleeve. Her eyes widened as she realized that it was James standing in front of her.

"James I-"

But James silenced her with his lips on hers.

He pulled away and immediately began talking. "Lily I'm sorry for everything I said last night. I was being a git, and I didn't mean any of it."

Lily stared at him, still shocked from the kiss. "What about Jenna?"

"I broke up with her this morning. She's not the girl for me."

"And who is?"

"You. I love you Lil,"

Lily wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Less than 24 hours ago, James had hated her with a burning passion, now he was telling her that he was in love with her? 

"I love you too James."

James kissed her again and Lily felt like her knees go weak; she couldn't believe how extremely lucky she was.

When they pulled away, Lily saw that James was grinning.

"What? What's so funny?" She asked suspiciously.

"I told you you'd ask me out," James said, grinning even more broadly.

"What?"

"On the train ride here, I told you that you would ask me out this year. I was right."

"No you weren't…I didn't ask you out."

"You confessed your love to me while you thought I was over you, it's the same thing."

Lily laughed. "Alright, you win, you were right."

James leaned in and kissed her again. "I always am."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

FINALLY! They're together! You have no idea how much I've been looking forward to finally writing this! Yay! I know that once again this chapter isn't brilliant quality-wise, but I promise, I'll start writing a lot better when mid terms are over and my stress goes down from the alarming rate it's at now. Ok, I'm done making excuses. Don't forget to review!-Britt


	13. XIII

            Midterms are over!!!! Wow I'm so unbelievably relieved. I did pretty good on them too, straight A's! But I'm incredibly happy that they're done with, now I'll have a lot more free time. I was rereading my story, and I realized that I never did character summaries. Like, explain the personalities of each character. It would make the story a lot easier to understand if I did, so I'm going to do them now, even though the stories already about halfway done lol. If you don't feel like reading the summaries, you don't have to. You can just skip over them and read the chapter. So here goes:

First the 7th year Gryffindor girls (Lily and her group of friends)…

Lily Evans-One of the most popular girls at Hogwarts, incredibly beautiful, smart, caring, etc. She's not one of those innocent virgin bookworms like everybody else makes her, but she's not a whore or anything like that.

Sammi Spinnet- Best friends with Remus since the first day of first year, but that's about to change (as you can tell from stuff that's already happened). She's really similar to Lily, except she's a bit more clueless.

Dylan Carter- The most popular girl at Hogwarts. Every girl wants to be her, and every guy wants to be with her. She's the flirt of the group; kind of a female version of James and Sirius. She knows what she wants, and she always gets it. She's also the sensible one, never falling for guys tricks. She speaks her mind, and can be really bitchy at times, but she's a good person overall.

Ashley Carter- Dylan's twin sister. They're identical to the last detail (except for their hair, which they both restyled in 5th year, tired of everybody confusing them), but their personalities couldn't be more different. While Dylan's the whorish one, she's the innocent prude. The only virgin left in the group. She never does anything wrong, and has a set of morals and standards that she always abides by. 

Toni Spinnet- The drama queen. She's a bit of an airhead, and always falls for guys games. 

And now the Marauders:

James- Most popular guy at Hogwarts. Quidditch superstar, gorgeous, smartest guy in school; the all around perfect guy lol. He was a Playboy, sleeping with girl after girl and then breaking their hearts, but that was just because he was trying to get over Lily. Now that he has her, he doesn't do it anymore.

Sirius Black- The most wanted guy at Hogwarts. He's beyond gorgeous, not to mention charming, funny, and a master of seduction. He's an even bigger player than James. He's really a good guy, but he doesn't want to ruin his reputation, so he acts like a prick.

Remus Lupin- He's just as good looking as James and Sirius, but he doesn't abuse it like they do. Remus is the perfect guy; sweet, caring, generous, kind; which makes him the guy the girls want after Sirius or James break their hearts. But lately he's only had eyes for one girl, Sammi. In my story he's not the innocent good-guy like everybody else makes him, he's just as much of a prankster and rule-breaker as the other Marauders, he's just not as bad as them when it comes to using girls.

Peter Pettigrew: Fat, short, weak, not talented, not as popular as the other Marauders, no girls like him. Like every other Harry Potter fan, I despise him, so he's going to be in this story as little as possible.

There's more characters, but I'll write about them when they come into the story.

And now…on with the chapter…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lily awoke the next morning to sunlight streaming through the gap in her bed curtains. She closed her eyes and thought about yesterday, praying that it wasn't all some cruel tempting dream. Looking around her dormitory, she saw that it was empty and realized with a jolt that she had classes today. She looked at the clock and groaned; she was going to have to get ready in record time if she wanted to have a quick breakfast before Defense Against the Dark Arts. Cursing her friends for not waking her up, she rolled out of bed and began to get ready.

            After a quick shower, she muttered a few spells to dry and straighten her hair, brushed her teeth, applied her makeup, and threw on her uniform. Grabbing her books as she went, she bolted out the door and hurried downstairs. As she descended the steps, she spotted James sitting on the couch in his quidditch robes, holding a stack of toast on a napkin.

            "James?"

            James looked up and smiled, holding up the toast. "The girls said you overslept, so I figured you wouldn't have time to go all the way down to the Great Hall for breakfast."

            Lily stared at him, unable to believe how lucky she was. She had realized last night that this wasn't just some stupid crush, she was in love with James Potter, and she couldn't be happier now that she had him. He was so sweet and caring, she had no idea how she had ever thought otherwise.

            She smiled back and walked over to him, "thanks."

            He handed her the toast and stood up. "I'll be right back, I have to go take a quick shower and change," he said, motioning to his quidditch robes.

            "You made the team practice before breakfast this morning?"

            "Of course, the match against Slytherin is in less than three weeks," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

            Lily shook her head; she'd never understand quidditch. James kissed her on the cheek and went upstairs, and she began to eat her toast. By the time she was finished, James still wasn't downstairs, so she sat and waited. Finally, about five minutes before they had to leave he came down the steps with only a towel wrapped around his waist, looking pissed off.

            "James, what-?"

            "Sirius hid my robes again," James snapped, tearing apart the Common Room looking for his missing clothes. "I'm going to kick his ass next time I see him,"

            Lily grinned at James' tanned, muscular body. "I wouldn't mind if you didn't find them, I'm enjoying the towel," she said, standing up and walking over to him

            James grinned back and stepped closer to her. "Oh really?"

            "Yup, very much so."

            James wrapped his arms around her waist and puller her even closer so their bodies were pressing against each other. 

            "Well I don't think it's fair that I'm only wearing a towel, and you're standing here fully clothed."

            "Well then we'll just have to change that." Lily said, removing her robes and slowly pushing up her sweater.

            Suddenly, she stopped. "But we'll have to do it later, because we have class."

            James jaw dropped and Lily burst out laughing.

            "You're such a tease," James said, pouting.

            Lily smirked. "I know." She gave him a quick kiss and pulled herself out of his grip.

            "Now go borrow some clothes from Sirius or Remus before we're late."

            James reluctantly went upstairs and got dressed. Five minutes later, he and Lily rushed into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom just as the late bell rang.

            "And where were you two this morning?" Sirius said, smirking.

            "Looking for my clothes you git." James said, sitting down with Lily at the table in front of him.

            Sirius began to laugh hysterically and Lily shook her head. "Grow up Black!" James may have matured this year, but Sirius was still the same prick he used to be and Lily still couldn't stand him.

            Just then the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Green, walked into the classroom and silenced them all. After about an hour or so of taking notes on the Unforgivable curses, he gave them some unpleasant news.

            "Today you'll be meeting with your groups for your mid-term project. You are to pick any chapter topic in your textbook that we've covered in the past two years, and write a four-foot essay on it. You and your group will give a twenty minute presentation on your chapter when Christmas Break ends. Now I know that I usually let you choose groups, but I think it's time we tried for a bit of inter-house unity. We'll be choosing numbers out of these hats, one for the Gryffindors, one for the Slytherins. There will be two of each number in each hat, which means two Slytherins and two Gryffindors in each group."

            The entire class groaned; it was _not_ a good idea to try and get Slytherins and Gryffindors to work together. As the hat got passed around, each student reluctantly picked a folded piece of paper out of it. When every person had picked, Professor Green instructed the class to open up their papers and look at their numbers.

            Lily looked at her paper; she was a four. "What'd you get?" she asked James hopefully.

            "Four, what about you?"

Lily grinned and showed him her paper. "Maybe this project won't be so bad after all."

"Don't get too excited, we still have to work with two of them," James said motioning disgustedly to the Slytherins.

Lily's face fell. "Oh yeah. I wonder who?"

James sighed. "Only one way to find out." He stood up and called across the room to the Slytherins. "Oy, you lot, greasy prats, which two of you are fours?"

Lily groaned and punched James in the arm. "Yeah, that's really going to help us get along with them better."

Suddenly Lily saw Snape looking at James in horror.

"You _have_ to be kidding me," she muttered, realizing what it meant.

"Alright class, now break up into your groups," Professor Green said, completely ignorant to the amount of trouble that this project was about to cause. "The bell is about to ring, so you'll only have time to meet your fellow group members; you'll start working on the project next class."

Lily and James stayed where they were, and Snape slowly made his way over to them, followed by the only person who could have possibly made this situation worse: Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix Black. When James noticed this, he put an arm around Lily's waist and pulled her closer; Bellatrix was psychotic and everybody knew it. She made it quite clear how much she hated muggles, and everybody knew that Lily was muggle-born.

"Go to the teacher this second and get the groups switched," Snape demanded before anybody else even had a chance to open their mouth.

"We can't you slimy git, otherwise we would of done it already." James said, glaring at him.

"Can't we all just act our age and work together in peace?" Lily said tentatively.

"Shut it, mudblood." Bellatrix hissed.

James jumped up, incensed.

"Take that back, _now_," he growled.

"I refuse to take orders from a blood traitor." Bellatrix snarled back.

The bell rang at that moment, because it looked as if it was taking all of James' self control not to hex Bellatrix.

Lily dragged a fuming James out of the room, worried that he was going to lose his temper.

"I can't believe we actually have to work with them! _What the hell was Green thinking?_"

"James calm down." Lily said desperately as they headed towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"NO! What the hell is wrong with her? Calling you a mudblood? I don't care if she's a girl, if she ever does it again I'll hex her worse than you could imagine."

Lily smiled at the fact that James was so protective of her as he continued on ranting about Bellatrix; he was so cute when he was angry.

She suddenly pushed him against the wall and kissed him, cutting off his furious tirade about how much he detested Slytherins.

She pulled away to see a grinning James.

"Just can't resist me, can you?"

Lily laughed. "I love you."

James smiled a genuine smile, one that very few people had ever seen. "I love you too."

He grabbed Lily by the waist and pulled her closer, and then bent down and kissed her again. Lily's mind began to spin as his tongue explored every inch of her mouth. She loved nothing more than being in James' arms, the feeling of his lips on hers. Nothing else in the world mattered now that they were finally together. As far as she was concerned, as long as she had James she could handle anything that came her way.

- - - - - - - - - -- -

Sammi sighed as she watched Lily and James. "Look at them, so in love. Why can't Amos and I have that?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "You're in lust with Amos, not love. You love his looks, not him."

"No!" she said indignantly, "I like him for him, not his looks! "

"No, you don't, you're just to obsessed with finding love to realize it. And you need to get over it because he's just in it for the sex. He's probably screwing a few other girls on the side."

"Gee Rem, thanks for your comforting words. This talk made me feel _so _much better."

"Anytime," Remus said smiling sarcastically.

"Ugh! What's with you lately?" Sammi said stamping her foot in frustration, "You're being such a dick."

Remus' anger got the better of him, and the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them. "If you haven't realized it yet, there's something wrong with you."

He shook his head and walked away, leaving Sammi standing there, thoroughly confused.

She turned to Sirius and Peter who were behind them. "Do you two have any idea what's wrong with him?"

"How have you not figured it out yet?" Sirius said exasperatedly, losing his patience. "You must be slower than Pete over here!"

"Hey!" Peter said indignantly, "I'm not slow!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Sirius said impatiently. "Listen Spinnet, I was going to let Moony tell you when he was ready, but I'm sick of it. He's in love with you. He's been in love with you for a really long ass time, and this is torture for him. So forget Diggory and get with Remus, because he's perfect for you and we all know it!"

With that he and Peter walked away, leaving a thoroughly shocked and confused Sammi all alone.

Sammi ran a hand through her hair in frustration as what she just heard slowly sank in. Remus was her best friend in the world; it had been that way since they were eleven. When the hell had he fallen in love with her?

The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Remus, but she just didn't feel the same way he did. He was like her brother, nothing more, and she had no idea what to do.

She began to head back towards the Common Room hoping that one of her friends had skipped lunch to catch up on work; she needed to talk to somebody or she was going to burst.

As she stepped through the portrait hole, she saw it was completely empty except for one person…Remus. He looked up at her, and she felt as if somebody had just punched her in the stomach. He looked so depressed and she hated that she was the reason for his pain.

Tears slowly started to spill down her face before she could stop them. Why did life have to be so complicated?

"Sammi what's wrong?"

"Sirius t-told me about your…your feelings."

The color drained from Remus' face as he stared at Sammi in horror. "He-he _what_?"

Sammi stared helplessly at him, praying that this was all a bad dream. She didn't want to lose her best friend, but she knew it could never be the same between them; it would be too awkward.

"D-do you feel the same?" Remus asked quietly.

"Maybe if you had told me earlier, before Amos…but…I-I'm sorry."

Remus actually felt his heart snap in two. It was over, there was no chance of them being together. At least before he had had some hope, but now…it was over.

"Remus please don't hate me," she pleaded, "you're my best friend in the world, I don't want to lose you over this."

Remus stared at her, trying to stay calm. "I-I have to go."

He turned and headed up the stairs to his dorm, locking the door behind him.

Sammi groaned and buried her face in her hands. This was going to be a long year.

- - - - - - -  - -  -- 

OK pretty short chapter but I wanted to get something up quickly. I have 88 reviews right now and I'd LOVE to get 100, so please review! The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update I promise! - Britt


	14. XIV

I'm so incredibly sorry this took so long to get up. I broke up with my boyfriend, and I was really upset so I wasn't really in the mood to write a love story, so I kind of lost thread of how this story is going and got the hugest writer's block. So if this chapter is bad, please don't hate me, I'm just not really into it right now.

Thanks so much for all the reviews though! I got past 100!!! And the reviews were so sweet, you guys are really great!

Hira: you asked me to mention you in the next chapter, so here it is. Thanks for your review!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Lily and James walked into the Great Hall hand in hand twenty minutes later, and headed towards the end of the Gryffindor table to sit with their friends.

"Glad to see you've stopped snogging in the middle of the crowded corridor." Sirius called, when he saw them coming.

Lily blushed, but James just laughed. "Like you should be talking.

Sirius stuck his tongue out at James as he sat down next to him. James ignored him and turned to Lily, who had just taken a seat across from him. "I wanted you to sit on my lap," he pouted.

"But if I sat on your lap, I wouldn't be able to look at you." Lily said grinning. "And I couldn't bear not being able to see your face that long."

"Fair enough," James said stared into her emerald green eyes, unable to believe how lucky he was. He still couldn't believe this was real. He had been wishing for this for years, and now she was finally his. It was better than he could have ever imagined; he loved everything about her. Her gorgeous eyes, her scarlet hair, her milky white skin, the way she smelled, the way she tasted, the way she laughed…the list was endless.

"I love you Lil,"

"I love you too."

Sirius rolled his eyes, and pretended to vomit. "Get a room you two!"

"Grow up Black!" Toni spat. "You're _so _immature."

"Walker, you're really hot when you're angry." Sirius said, grinning seductively. "Why don't we go up to my dorm and-"

"Fuck off!" Toni said angrily. "I'm not falling for your bullshit again."

Lily, Dylan, and Ashley all began to clap and cheer. Toni blushed, but looked pleased with herself.

James raised an eyebrow at Lily. "Care to explain?"

"Toni has a problem with telling whether guys are sweet and caring like you, or if they're scum like Sirius who are just trying to play her," Lily said, smirking at Sirius. "But now I think this prat has finally made her see the light.

Sirius pouted. "Why's everybody against me?"

James laughed. "Padfoot shut up and eat your food."

Sirius grinned at his overly filled plate and happily complied.

"Anybody know where Moony is?" James said, looking around the table after realizing he wasn't there.

"Probably shagging Spinnet," Sirius said proudly, through a mouthful of food.

Lily's eyes widened. "What? He told her?"

Sirius swallowed and shook his head. "Nope, I did. I was getting sick of her going on and on about Diggory right in front of him."

"And what did she say?" Lily said nervously.

"She didn't say anything, she was too shocked."

Lily groaned and got up from the table. 

"Where are you going?" James said, also standing up.

"To fix the mess that this dumbass caused." She said irritably, motioning to Sirius. "Stay here, I use need to talk to Remus alone."

She turned and left the hall, dreading what she was going to find when she reached Gryffindor Tower. Everybody could see that Sammi and Remus were perfect together, except Sammi. She was too blinded by Amos' looks to see anybody but him.

"Trust Sirius to mess things up as usual," Lily muttered to herself as she reached the portrait hole. She quickly said the password and stepped through. Sure enough, Sammi was sitting there alone on a couch, her head in her hands.

"Sammi?"

Sammi jumped and looked around. As soon as she saw Lily she opened her mouth to speak, but Lily cut her off.

"What'd you say to him?"

"How did you know?" Sammi said, bewildered.

"Sirius told me he told you. What'd you say to him?"

"I said I didn't feel the same and now he won't talk to me!" Sammi whined. "Lily you need to talk some sense into him, I don't want to lose my best friend!"

"Talk some sense into _him_?" Lily cried exasperatedly. "I need to talk some sense into YOU! Remus is the perfect guy! Sweet, handsome, funny, popular, caring…all Diggory has is looks! And he's a dick and even more arrogant than James used to be. What's wrong with you? Why can't you see that?"

            "WHY IS EVERYBODY AGAINST ME?" Sammi said angrily. "I can't help the way I feel."

            "Yeah, whatever," Lily mumbled, shaking her head. "I'm going to talk to Remus, stay down here."

            She ran up the stairs to the Seventh Year Boys' dorm and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so she knocked again. There was still no answer, so she gave up and just pushed the door open. Remus was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling, but sat straight up when he heard the door swing open. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Lily entering, and not Sammi. Lily looked him over and felt her heart break for him. He looked so depressed, and his eyes were red like he had been crying.

            "Aw Rem I'm so sorry," she said running over and hugging him. "Are you okay?"

            "Not really, but I will be…eventually."

            "Maybe it's time you moved on. You're a great guy and there's tons of girls here who are dying to go out with you, maybe you should give them a try."

            Remus shook his head. "It's no use, I can't get over her. She's just so…perfect. No other girl could ever compare."

            Lily sighed. She knew exactly what she was talking about; she could never love another guy as much as she loved James.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Sammi pulled her ear away from the door, her eyes wide. She had been listening in on Lily and Remus' conversation, just to make sure he was okay, but she couldn't bear listening anymore. 'She's just so…perfect. No other girl could ever compare.' That was the sweetest thing anybody had ever said abour her. She had a horrible feeling in her stomach that she guessed was guilt as she walked down into the Common Room.

- - - - - - - - -  - - 

I'm going to stop here even though I don't want to because I have to go visit my sister in the hospital but I really want to get something up. Please review! - Britt


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